In an information recording medium, such as a CD (Compact Disc) and a DVD, for example, as described in patent documents 1 and 2, etc., embossed pits, or pits obtained by irradiation of recording laser are formed in advance in a minimum necessary area of a lead-in area, in order to protect illegal copying and to protect falsification of management or control information.
Alternatively, in the recording operation for a single or multiple layer type optical disc, a sync and address information are recorded simultaneously with the recording of the data so as to maintain compatibility with a ROM (Read Only Memory) disc, and in order to reduce a time length for recording a lead-out at the time of a finalize process, there is also a technology of controlling a recording apparatus so as to perform a higher-speed recording operation if recording information into a lead-out area, than recording it into a data area, as described in a patent document 3.
Moreover, as described in a patent document 4, there is also a technology of controlling the recoding apparatus so as to perform a high-speed recording operation by changing the recording strategy of the recording laser if recording the information into the lead-out area.
Moreover, as described in a patent document 5, there is also such a recoding apparatus that minimizes the length of the lead-out area, while maintaining the compatibility with the ROM disc.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2001-266362    Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2000-331412    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2001-176079    Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2003-151133    Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2003-157620    Patent document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2002-170339